


Learning Your Melodies

by Afoolforatook



Series: An Anthology of Affection [21]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Cellist Clover, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Musicians!AU, No Beta, Patch - Freeform, Violinist Qrow, teasing the old men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 10:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25348843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afoolforatook/pseuds/Afoolforatook
Summary: Clover is so excited to spend his life with Qrow.He's so excited to continue to discover new parts of his life.Including the parts he never would have expectedThere are so many notes to Qrow's tune that he doesn't yet know.-----------------Part 21Saw a post of kissing prompts. Liked a bunch of them. Decided to give myself a daily challenge to get myself actually publishing things while I work on bigger projects.One prompt a day. Under 1500 words (or close to it).
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: An Anthology of Affection [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805008
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	Learning Your Melodies

**Author's Note:**

> This could tech be a prequel to Breathing Cues

Prompt 21 - A chaste kiss given to each other because they are in mixed company. 

Learning Your Melodies

\---------------------------------------------------

“Oh please, Uncle Qrow?! That...That old one you used to play all the time when we were little!!?” Ruby asked excitedly, bouncing slightly as she sat on the couch. 

They had just finished dinner and were sitting in the living room when Tai had suggested they go out to the porch since the night was so nice. He’d looked at Qrow with a slight smirk as he spoke towards the girls. 

“You know, I bet if you asked him nicely enough your uncle would even play something for us.” 

Both girls had perked up a bit at that and Qrow and Clover had each choked on the sips of coffee they’d just taken. 

Qrow shot Tai a subtle glare as Clover looked at him wide-eyed. 

“Yeah, that really fun fast one!” Yang chimed in, grinning as she saw the secret unfolding before them. 

Clover just stared at his boyfriend, dumbfounded. Qrow rubbed the nape of his neck sheepishly as he avoided looking at him and answered the girls.

“I mean… I haven’t really been home in a while… I’m bound to be rusty…” He paused as he saw the smug and pleading eyes looking up at him. 

“Fine.” He sighed lightly. “But it’s not going to be as fast as you two are going to want. Not without some time to warm up.” 

Clover was still staring, and he finally found a place to jump into the conversation. 

“Um, sorry… Play!?” He asked Qrow pointedly, trying not to sound both offended and giddy that he was only now learning about this. 

Clover had played for Qrow back at Atlas. And once they were together the older huntsman would often sit nearby when Clover had the rare moment to practice. 

Qrow had said he’d grown up around music. But he never said anything about playing. 

Qrow slowly met his eyes, a playful nervousness in his smile. 

“Oh yeah… did I forget to mention that? Huh… I really must be getting old I guess.” 

But he still hadn’t said what. 

“Well, you all go on out and I’ll go grab it and be out in a minute.” Qrow said simply, pushing himself up to head to his room. 

Clover looked like he was going to follow him as Qrow shook his head, nodding to the door. 

“Just hold on. You’ll see in a minute, Shamrock.” He said cheekily, waving his hand for Clover to follow the others. 

“I can’t believe you never sa-” Clover started. 

Qrow winked and patted his arm comfortingly. “I thought you liked my mysterious side.” He teased. 

Clover rolled his eyes but yielded, taking the blanket that Ruby offered him as he walked out onto the porch. 

Clover sat, forgetting the blanket after he slung it over the back of his chair, waiting for Qrow. 

Yang nudged Tai’s shoulder as they waited and smiled over at Clover. 

“Dad, did you know that Clover’s a cellist? Atlas classically trained and everything.” She cocked her head as she thought for a moment before asking. “Was it… Orchestra master?” 

Clover didn’t know what to do with her tone. It was obviously teasing but it wasn’t in the way he might have expected. It was as if they all knew something he didn’t. Which apparently they did. 

“Well it’s Concert Master, but that’s customarily a violinist. I was first chair cello.” He said slowly, squinting at the grinning blonde, and her father beside her; who’d broken into a smile of his own. 

“You’re kidding… Oh, that’s just too good.” Qrow’s old teammate mumbled as he stifled a laugh with his hand. 

“Okay, okay, I give what’s-” Clover started, when he perked up as he heard footsteps coming towards the door. 

Along with a familiar testing strum across four high register strings. 

Clover’s heart flipped as he watched Qrow push the door open with his shoulder and step out onto the porch with them. 

He held his hands in front of his stomach, left elbow tucked against his side as his hand held the long neck of the instrument. His right elbow held the body of it to his chest, thumb pulling lazily over the strings as he picked out quiet notes with his left hand. His right pointer finger hooked easily as he barely swung the long thin bit of wood and metal and horsehair from it. He walked over to the railing, leaning back against it as he curved over his violin, frowning while he adjusted the E tuning peg, before moving his hand down to the tailpiece and tightening the fine tuner. He strummed lightly, picking out the proper tone. Once he was satisfied with that he tilted his head back as he looked up, concentrating, and his fingers began to ghost over the strings in memorized patterns. He didn’t strum as he remembered notes, the only sound the occasional ring as he lifted a finger from a string with particular force. 

Clover watched him in awe. Qrow, with a violin? He never would have imagined. But as he looked the instrument over, something clicked. The heavily scratched wood, areas of varnish all but rubbed away, a small strip of cloth tied in the loop of the scroll, even the way Qrow held it. Clover could tell.

His partner might have been holding a violin, but Qrow Branwen wasn’t a violinist as Clover knew them. The man before him, all poor posture and loose demeanor, was a fiddle player. 

Qrow finally looked up to meet Clover's eyes right as he swung his instrument up in one swift motion. He laid it low on his shoulder, the chin rest obviously a matter more of structure than use, and his long fingers curved around his bow a good couple of inches above the frog. 

“Okay… Like… like I said, I’m rusty so… let me warm up a bit.” He looked away, as he pulled his bow steady across each string a few times to guarantee their pitch. And then he sat back against the railing, long legs stretched out in front of him as he watched his fingers carefully and began to play. 

Clover rolled his eyes and grinned as Qrow shot his eyes up to him, never moving his chin from his instrument, as he played a number of riffs he’d heard Clover play so many times. Qrow held his gaze as he straightened his back, rolling his shoulders back into a proper posture and puffing himself up in fond mockery of Clover's perfect playing position. 

After a few times running through things like that, letting his fingers warm up, feeling the correct positions along the fingerboard, Qrow slowly began to morph into unfamiliar tunes. Clover watched as crimson red eyes closed and Qrow pulled away from the porch railing, his body starting to move with his rhythm as he played. Clover could tell, by the slight pinch in his brow, the concentration behind closed lids, that he wasn’t remembering now. He was just moving, picking one note after the other out of thin air. His bowings began to change, a choppier movement to his wrist as he began to speed up. Every so often Clover would see his lips quirk, a sour note spilling from him, or a messy string crossing. But finally, he seemed to have truly settled into his rhythm. 

He dropped his instrument from his shoulder as he looked at the girls watching him eagerly. 

“So, that old slip jig, right?” He asked warmly. 

Ruby nodded, grinning from ear to ear. 

Qrow just nodded slightly as he raised his instrument again and looked off into nothing as he thought. 

“Yeah, I think I can remember that one.” He drawled confidently. 

He took a breath, held his instrument between his shoulder and chin as he flexed his wrist a few times before letting it drop, sinking perfectly into the curve of his hand. He bowed a quick note, making sure he was starting off right. And then he was gone. 

The tune started out slow enough. He was right, it was a slip jig; the first note sliding its way into the right pitch as he stuttered his bow across notes, never moving below the middle of the stick. It was languid, electric, rich, and gritty all at once. With each slide into the A part of the tune, Qrow’s hips twitched like he wasn’t just throwing his finger to the note, but his entire self. He swayed easily, not trying to show off in his movement, but feeling it run through him. 

He pulled off a few trills, grace notes, wonderfully phrased runs of hooked bowings, dotted between crisp bow strokes, before starting the A part one last time, his tempo slowly lagging. He drew out the last note, vibrato rich and clear and as smooth as honey. He lifted his bow from the string lightly, acting like he was about to let his shoulders drop. Before he winked at Clover and dove into the fast B section of the jig. Syncopated strokes, jumping between strings, his fingers flying as muscle memory sped him on. A trill. Faster. Faster. A sharp ring lift, and then slowing slightly, becoming a perfect merge of the A and B parts before a sharp bow lift that hung in the air….and then crashed back down into the sliding ringing, jumping coda. Qrow’s hips accented every strong downstroke as he closed his eyes, concentrating fully now as the song entered it’s quickest part. 

Everything about him rolled, notes clipping the air freely as he threw them out and raced towards the next. His fingers curled over the fingerboard easily, never pulling far as they found their next target. 

And then with one final flourish, his bow flew up, hanging in the air as he panted lightly. 

Ruby jumped up to hug him, squealing in delight. 

“Uncle Qrow that was wonderful!! And it wasn’t even that much slower than how you used to do it.” 

Clover blinked at the fact that what he had just seen was the rusty, slow version, of his boyfriend’s abilities. 

Clover stood and walked over to him, his eyes wide with awe and warmth and complete adoration. 

His heart was racing as he watched him. This man who had once been so withdrawn and dour. Who was certainly graceful and passionate, but most often showed that with his scythe. But this. This was different. This was a sense of weightless ease that Clover hadn’t seen in him before. This was creating something that swept you off to lilting passages of sound. 

Clover stared as he reached Qrow, his hand lifting to the small scrap of cloth that hung from his scroll. He now saw that it was two strips. Before he had only seen the dark red, which threaded through the eyelet of a tiny cross charm. 

Ruby noticed where he was looked and spoke. “Oh! When’d you add that, Uncle Qrow?” she asked brightly. 

Clover’s fingers grazed over the dark green cloth that laced through the red. 

“I’d been meaning to since we got back but hadn’t really had a moment till just now.” Qrow answered softly, eyes glued to Clover. 

“So...Shamrock… How’d I do? Was it a good surprise?” Clover knew him well enough to hear the slight apprehension in his question. 

Clover pulled back from the scroll and cupped Qrow’s cheek fondly. 

“That was… That was amazing Qrow… yeah... Yeah, definitely a surprise.” He nodded, smiling, before kissing him lightly, thumb stroking his cheek. 

“I didn’t remember these little jam sessions getting so lovey when we were little, do you, Rubes?” Yang teased as Ruby laughed quietly and stepped over towards the older girl.

“Nah. But I think I’m okay to let it slide.” The dark-haired girl answered before her eyes shot open. 

“I forgot about my hot chocolate!” She yelped, rushing back into the house. Yang and Tai laughed and made eye contact, both slipping inside after the younger girl. 

Qrow and Clover were left alone on the porch. 

Clover just stared at him, speechless. When he noticed they really were alone he kissed him again, harder, almost desperately. 

He’d known Qrow was the future he wanted for a while now. That’s why he was even here. But something clicked into place in his mind as those notes reverberated in his head. 

He wasn’t excited to just stay with Qrow. He was excited for every part of him he still hadn’t seen. He was excited to spend the rest of his life learning melody after melody that the man before him was constructed from. Every little detail a new note to his tune that he wanted Clover to hear. They were bass and treble lines, now matching up and moving forward, a new part of themselves in every measure. 

He held Qrow close for a moment more before letting him go and smiling eagerly. 

“I’ll have to find a way to get a new cello around here. We can learn a duet!” He exclaimed, hand trailing gently through Qrow’s hair. 

Qrow laughed and spun away, fingers thrumming along the upper bout of his instrument. 

“Hold on there Boy Scout. I’m not really big on sheet music.” He laughed warmly. 

Clover pursed his lips in a tight smile. “I think we can figure something out.”

Qrow laughed again and pulled the door open, nodding for Clover to follow him in. 

“Alright, Cloves. Just as long as you don’t expect me to become one of your proper violinists.” He said the last few words haughtily as he teased. 

Clover’s fingers caught his wrist lightly before he stepped inside. His eyes were soft but set. 

“You’re good just as you are, feathers. Messy and sharp and breathtaking. That sound, that feeling, energy? That suits you beautifully.” 

He kissed him firmly again, only breaking away and blushing as Yang stuck her head into the hall and teased. 

“Okay, we’ll only let so much of that slide, ya’know?”

Qrow glared at her fondly before turning back to Clover and asking him, his voice filled with an overly silky tone. 

“Well then, Clover? Could you come and help me get this all packed back up.” He smirked. 

Clover nodded, grinning as well, as he let Qrow drag him up towards his, their, bedroom. 

“Ew.” Yang deadpanned.

Qrow turned around as he got to the top of the stairs and smiled smugly down at his niece. 

“Then mind your own business there, firecracker.” he snapped playfully before continuing on down the hall, Clover towed behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the slip jig that Qrow plays - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM0HtYqbsyg
> 
> I just... I love this tune. It was my senior recital piece and just. Ahhhhhh. 
> 
> ...can't be bothered to read back through to edit this rn so..... i'll catch little things later.  
> \---------  
> There were 50 prompts originally, but I've already thought of a few more. Also had multiple ideas for a few, which is why some might be listed as chapter 1, with a future version of the prompt coming later.
> 
> Might not end up sticking strictly to the daily thing, but I'll do my best. Either way, here's an ongoing series of little moments.
> 
> Original prompt list - https://kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-types-of-kisses-writing-prompts
> 
> Might edit here and there later, but the goal here was to just finish something, even if it's not perfectly polished.


End file.
